Reply To: Palestine-Israel Conflict

Will such counter-violence get the Israelis to negotiate?

I don’t believe so. And we have decades of previous armed struggles to base that view on. The Lions Den is the latest and an expression of the frustration the Palestinians feel at the lack of any political progress.

Negotiations mean compromise and concessions on both sides.

What have the Palestinians got to bring to the table that Jewish-Israelis are interested in?

Urban guerrilla warfare?

For many Zionists this is exactly what they hope for, to acquire Israeli popular support to permit pogroms against the relatively defenceless Palestinian population.

What has Israel to gain from talks? Absolutely nothing.

They have no need for talks as they hold overwhelming dominance. They have a docile Palestinian-Israeli population inside Israel, a subdued West Bank run by the collaborationist and corrupt PA, and in Gaza a Hamas administration dependant upon the patronage of Qatar to function.

The US the only country with a degree of influence will not pressure Israel to reach any agreement with the Palestinians.

As I said previously, all this is basically cost-free to Israel. The ordinary Jewish-Israeli is as unaffected by the situation as the ordinary Russian citizen is by the Ukraine war.

There can be no victory for the Palestinians when the existing status quo works so well for Israel.

Armed struggle isn’t going to work. BDS is toothless unless nations enforce real sanctions, which they won’t. Migrant labour means the Israel economy isn’t as reliant on Palestinian labour as it once was.

Will things change? First there needs to be a shift in consciousness and that isn’t happening. Opinion polls show the attitudes of both sides growing increasingly polarised.